Divers have removed more than 100kg of deadly monofilament “ghost net” from a wreck off the Cornish coast.

The James Eagan Layne sank in Whitsand Bay, South East Cornwall, during the Second World War.

In the decades since, she had become wreathed in nets lost from fishing boats. They are called “ghost nets” because they carry on their silent killing of marine life and are a hazard for divers.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the UN Environment Programme, an estimated 640,000 tonnes of fishing nets are left in the oceans each year, accounting for one-tenth of all marine litter.

The nets are often trapped on and around shipwrecks.

A spider crab trapped in a net on the James Eagan Layne in Whitsand Bay (Image: Christine Grosart)

Ghost Fishing UK, an underwater conservation team, joined forces with by Healthy Seas, Milliken and Aquafil to clean up the James Eagan Lane last Saturday.

Dougie Allen, partner of Aquanauts Dive Centre and skipper of their boat Outcast, ferried the divers to the wreck site.

The divers worked in teams, in poor visibility. They made four dives to retrieve bags of ghost gear.

The nets will be transformed into ECONYL yarn, a high-quality raw material which is then turned into brand new sustainable textiles such as Milliken carpets.

“We want to work with the fishermen to find out where they lost their nets or pots so that we can retrieve them before they cause further harm to wildlife.

“We would also like scuba divers to contact us whenever they spot lost nets or pots on the wrecks or reefs where they dive.

Ghost nets on the wreck of the James Eagan Layne in Whitsand Bay (Image: Christine Grosart)

“We are expanding and our goal is to train more divers to work safely in a fairly risky environment to remove more ghost gear.”

The group’s chairman, Richard Walker, said: “When marine life is caught by ghost fishing nets or pots it cannot be landed and dies in the lost gear, acting as bait for larger animals which in turn become trapped.”

The clean-up action in Plymouth is sponsored by “Healthy Seas, a Journey from Waste to Wear”, an international initiative that recovers and recycles abandoned fishing nets.

Veronika Mikos, project coordinator of Healthy Seas, said: “Thanks to the support of partners like Milliken, the initiative has the possibility to grow and reach its goals such as raising awareness about the problem of marine litter and possible solutions.”

Ghost Fishing chief executive and founder, Pascal Van Erp, who is also diving coordinator of Healthy Seas, travelled from the Netherlands to join the Whitsand Bay clean-up.

Ghost Fishing UK is an established, underwater conservation team of volunteers. These experienced and dedicated scuba divers have been cleaning up the sea floor in Scapa Flow, Orkney since 2015 and have spread their nets wider to remove lost or abandoned ghost nets from popular wreck sites around Plymouth.